The Ecclesiastical Orders of Knighthood by James van Der Veldt

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The Ecclesiastical Orders of Knighthood

The Ecclesiastical Orders

of

Knighthood

by

James van Der Veldt, O.F.M.

of

The Catholic University of America

The Catholic University of America Press

620 Michigan Avenue, N.E.

Washington 17, D. C.

1956

Reprinted from

The American Ecclesiastical Review

Historical Background
Development of the Orders of Knighthood

The Sovereign Military Order of St. John of Jerusalem
The Order of the Teutonic Knights

The Iberian Military Orders
The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem

Pontifical Orders of Knighthood

The Supreme Order of Christ
Order of the Golden Spur
The Order of Pius
Order of St. Gregory the Great
The Order of Saint Sylvester, Pope
The Papal Decorations

Illustrations

iii

v

1

October, November, December, 1955

and January, 1956

First printing—April, 1956
Second printing—July, 1956

Third printing—November, 1957

FOREWORD

Widespread interest in the Ecclesiastical Orders of Knighthood has been demonstrated by continual requests for information pertaining to
them on the part of libraries and individual persons, particularly those who have been knighted. In the United States this interest lies chiefly
in those Orders most familiar to Americans, such as the Order of Malta, the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, the Order of St. Gregory, and in
the medals Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice and Benemerenti. Such interest prompted the publication of this booklet which contains reprints of
four articles originally published in the “American Ecclesiastical Review.”

The booklet gives a description of the history, organization, emblems and membership requirements of the various Orders connected with
the Catholic Church and which are still in existence.

By way of introduction, Part One deals with the historical background—the origin and development of Knighthood in general. Parts Two
and Three treat the Religious Military Orders which originated in the Holy Land—The Order of Malta, the Order of the Holy Sepulchre,
the Teutonic Order—and the Military Orders of Spain and Portugal. Finally, Part Four treats of those Orders which are directly bestowed
by the Holy See—the Order of Christ, the Order of the Golden Spur, the Order of Pius, the Order of St. Gregory, and of St. Sylvester. In
addition the papal decorations are described.

The final pages of the booklet display the insignia of the three ecclesiastical groups: Military Orders of Knighthood, Pontifical Orders of
Knighthood and Papal Decorations, with a brief description of shape and color. The pictures present the Knight’s cross, unless otherwise
designated. Since the emblems of the Orders of Calatrava, Alcantara and Montesa are identical in form, only one picture is used for all
three with a specification of the respective colors. Under the heading of Pontifical Decorations a picture is given of the Lateran Cross
which is recognized, although not directly bestowed, by the Holy See.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Part I

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7

Part II

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23

Part III

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33

Part IV

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47
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51
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THE ECCLESIASTICAL ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD

Part I

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The term ecclesiastical orders of knighthood embraces those knightly orders which, in one way or another, are connected with the Catholic
Church. At the present time they are in two different groups: the pontifical orders of knighthood in the strict sense and a group of chivalric
orders which derive from medieval military orders and continue to come under ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

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The Pontifical or Papal Orders of Knighthood are conferred directly by His Holiness the Pope (Ordini Equestri Pontifici, conferiti
direttamente dal Sommo Pontefice con lettere apostoliche). They include: the Supreme Order of Christ, the Order of the Golden Spur,
the Order of Pius, the Order of Saint Gregory the Great, and the Order of Saint Sylvester, Pope.[1]

The remaining group identified with ecclesiastical orders of knighthood is that of religious military orders. Originally they were religious
orders of lay brothers and as such came under the jurisdiction of the Holy See. They enjoyed the approbation and protection of the Holy
Father, and it is in that sense they partake of the name, pontifical. Yet they always had a certain autonomy, in that they had their own
government, with a grand master at the head, whose office was similar to that of a Superior General of a religious order. Most of
these ancient military orders are now extinct or have become purely secular orders of knighthood. A few have retained some features
of their ecclesiastical character. They are the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, known also as the Order of Malta, the Teutonic Order,
and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, as well as the extant Spanish Military Orders.

Difference in objective is another important feature between the two groups. The military orders, from the outset, pursued a specific
purpose, as the care of the sick and the poor, the protection of the faith, crusading against infidels. This survives today in the existing
military orders though in a much modified form.

All other existing orders of knighthood, be they ancient or more recent in origin, are honorary and mere orders of merit. Their only purpose
is that of bestowing tokens of respect for well-deserving citizens, to reward military or civil services to the country or the crown, to
recognize merit in the field of art, science, charity, or business. Orders of merit are “orders” only in the broad sense of the term; they have
a constitution or statutes, but such documents usually contain little more than a description of the origin of the order, its privileges and the
degrees of its members as well as the reason for conferring the order and its form of the decorations. In fact, the term “order” has come to
be limited to the insignia which the members are entitled to wear.

Within the framework of the above twofold classification of pontifical and military orders, another dual grouping exists which is based on
historical criteria. Some of the ecclesiastical orders of knighthood go back to the age of chivalry; this is certainly the case with the military
orders, the Order of Christ, and probably the Order of the Golden Spur. The origin of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre is still historically
debatable. The remaining pontifical orders of knighthood were established long after the age of chivalry came to a close.

Distinct from the orders of knighthood are a certain number of ecclesiastical decorations. These are marks of honor (distintivi de onore),
without, however, extending the title of Knight to the recipient. It is, therefore, incorrect to designate a person receiving such an honor as
knighted by the Pope, as it is equally incorrect to put all the ecclesiastical orders of knighthood under the heading of papal
decorations.

Ecclesiastical decorations, like the ecclesiastical orders of knighthood, are of two kinds. Those bestowed directly by the Holy See and
consequently strictly pontifical are the Cross “Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice” and the Medal “Benemerenti.” The second category are those
approved by the Holy See and their recipients may wear the decoration at the papal court and at ecclesiastical ceremonies. The honor,
however, is not granted directly by the Pope. An example thereof is the Lateran Cross, which is conferred by the Chapter of the Basilica
of Saint John Lateran.

This brief outline will be clarified as the various orders are treated in subsequent articles. It is our intention in the present article to confine
ourselves to a survey of the historical background of the orders of knighthood.

Although much of the information about the early beginnings of knighthood is rooted in conjecture, a plausible thesis would make
knighthood coincide with the rise of the cavalry in Europe, during the first half of the eighth century. It coincides with the times when the
Christians in the encounters with the Saracens soon discovered that their infantry were no match for those who fought on horseback. Such
armies had much greater mobility, and the center of gravity in the Christian military strategy shifted accordingly.

Throughout the first hundred years after this new horseback “militia” had been introduced, all free men could join it, on condition that they
were able to provide a horse and equip it at their own expense. Only people of some means could afford this luxury, and the wealthier
class was that of the landowners. Service in the cavalry, therefore, implied the possessing of some property, preferably in the form of land.

A revolutionary innovation took place simultaneously in the system of land ownership, changing from an allodial, i.e., absolute ownership,
to a feudal system. That is why the horseback military service came to be linked with the feudal method of land tenure. It accounts for the
historical development of knighthood being so closely related to the history of the feudal system. The history of feudal land ownership is
hardly pertinent here, and it will suffice here to state that the tenants-in-chief and their subalterns in the feudal system formed the
cavalry of the army; they were the horsemen, chevaliers, or knights. That is how the original form of knighthood became so intimately
associated with the tenure of land, and how the knights were known as feudal knights.

While the knights were initially landed gentry, gradually—and already a considerable time before the Crusades—a different type of knight
appeared, namely, that of the horseman without land. Equally so, knighthood began to constitute a distinct social class. No longer was
feudal tenure the background of knighthood but rather personal valor. The development was the consequence of the custom of
primogeniture as it existed in the Frankish form of the feudal system.

Two types of feudal succession were known on the European continent. Where the Longobard feudal law held sway, as was the case in
Italy, at the death of the feudatory incumbent, the land was divided among his male heirs. In many cases the original fief was cut into ever
smaller portions during successive generations. This gentry were still landholders, even though their financial position, due to the divisions
and subdivisions of the ancestral property, might not be much better economically than that of the peasants who actually worked the land.

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In France and other countries where the Frankish feudal system prevailed, conditions were altogether different. Here, according to the law
of primogeniture, the entire feud passed to the eldest son, who was then bound by an oath of fealty to his overlord. The younger sons had
to be satisfied with precious little; they might make a livelihood by offering their service to their eldest brother, in which case they were
obliged to do the menial work of the estate very much the same as that of domestics and peasants. It is quite understandable that many of
these younger sons, particularly the less amenable and the more venturesome, could be expected to scorn such an inferior station in life.
Being of noble birth, this dispossessed youth might say with the steward of the gospel: “What shall I do?... To dig I am not able; to beg I
am ashamed.” Only two callings were open to them, the priestly or the military vocation, and of the two the calling of soldier was far more
attractive. Upon leaving the paternal domain, they usually were given a horse and armor to aid in their search for economic independence.
For the most part, they did not have to look long, because war was in progress all over Europe among the many and small feudal
states. Yet, because they were no longer aligned with the feudal hierarchy, they had no obligation to render military service to any
specific lord and could approach the highest bidder. This meant that a new and ever increasing group of independent, non-feudal horsemen
came into existence who sought to win their spurs on their own merit. They became knights, not because they happened to have a feudal
estate, but because of personal exploits on the battlefield. These soldiers frequently gained more than glory and honor inasmuch as a
grateful employer who had taken them into his pay would extend his bounty to presenting them with a castle and some land, upon success
in a military expedition. The medieval right of plunder could provide the victorious knight with the necessary accoutrement to furnish his
newly-won castle. One readily appreciates the consolidation of the economic position for those concerned. There was this difference,
however, that their possessions came to them not by right of birth but by personal valor.

The same kind of knight appeared also in the lands of the Longobard feudal system. The small gentry in Italy, unsatisfied with what little
they possessed, often offered their military services to the rapidly growing townships. This eventually bettered their economic as well as
their political status.

Two types of knighthood were then in existence, the older form of territorial knighthood concentrated in ruling fief-holders, and the newer
form, that of chivalry founded on individual military service. Since the latter was bestowed upon a soldier independently of a fief, it might be
called non-feudatory knighthood.

As the non-feudal knights grew to be the more numerous, knighthood became a separate class of society. Like any other social institution,
knighthood passed through the storm-and-stress period of adolescence. Knights in the tenth and part of the eleventh centuries were often
enough no more than bands of lawless brigands. Living as they did outside the ranks of the feudal hierarchy, these “gentlemen” interpreted
the fact of not being bound by fealty to any particular master as a kind of charter of freedom from all laws and prohibitions. As narrated in
the medieval lays or ballads, the examples of lawlessness and cruelty among some knights are, of course, outstanding. Yet, this new social
class was indeed a menace to society. It was understandable, in the long run, that the authorities should look for means to call a halt
to the excesses. In this effort the civil authorities were strongly supported by the Church, which launched a kind of peace offensive,
endeavoring to direct the crude energies of knighthood into right channels and make of the new class an instrument of good in the social
structure. There was success so that little by little knighthood became respectable to a remarkable degree. The reaction described had set
in at the end of the tenth century, and a century later a change for the better in the moral life of the knights was everywhere in evidence.
The reform was, however, not due exclusively to outside forces. As a class, the knights had the same needs and the same aspirations; and
the better elements among them would try to enter into some sort of common tie. That common bond was a code of honor for knighthood
and came to be generally accepted by the end of the eleventh century, namely around the time of the first Crusade. The motto of a good
knight was succinctly expressed in the following Italian rhyme: “La mia anima a Dio, la mia vita al Re, il mio cuore alla Dama, l’onore
per me (My soul to God, my life to the Crown, my heart to the Lady, my own the renown).” The duties of a knight broadened into that of
protecting and defending the Church, the widows, the orphans and the oppressed, of vindicating justice, and of avenging evil. The
catalogue of the cardinal virtues for chivalry included courtesy, valor, class loyalty, self-denial, munificence, and hospitality. The code was
well-nigh theoretically perfect, even if all knights did not observe it in practice. As a matter of fact, the virtues to which the knight was
dedicated sometimes led to exaggerations, distortions, and their very opposite.

The high point in the age of chivalry came during the Crusades, those religious wars waged in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by the
Christians of Western Europe against the Mohammedans for the recovery of the Holy Land. An interaction came about between the
Crusades and chivalry. The spirit of chivalry was largely responsible for making possible these campaigns for a religious ideal. Thereby, the
Crusades provided a powerful impetus in the development of knighthood, for it was during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that chivalry
attained its highest peak both in quality and quantity. The Crusades did not create a new type of knighthood, but they gave the
knights a chance to show their mettle.

When the landless soldiers of the Cross distinguished themselves in battle just as well or perhaps even better than the feudal knights, it was
reasonable that they should claim their reward. If they fought as well as those who owed knighthood to their feudal status, why should they
not claim the honors and benefits of knighthood? In that way the Crusades gave the horsemen large scale opportunity to become knights
through personal valor. However, the conditio sine qua non for becoming a knight at this time was still the old law that the candidates
should be of noble birth, that is to say, that they could trace their descent from the ancient feudal families. In the century following the
Crusades the decline of knighthood set in, and it is generally admitted that by 1500 the age of chivalry had passed. Then it was that its
tradition and spirit were kept alive in the orders of knighthood.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD

The first orders of knighthood were radically of a religious nature inasmuch as they pursued a religious purpose and were organized like
other religious communities. The order of knighthood was composed of a body of knights, united by some common objective as the care
of the sick or the defense of the Catholic faith, and who were pledged with the vows of obedience, poverty and chastity, led a community

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life under a chosen head and professed a common rule approved by the ecclesiastical authorities.

The birthplace of all orders of knighthood was the Holy Land and they appeared during the period of the Crusades. True, some historians
attempt to date the origin of the military orders as far back in antiquity as possible, for instance, to Charlemagne and his paladins or to
Constantine the Great and his mother, Saint Helena. The claims of such ancestry fanatics to the contrary notwithstanding, it can safely be
said that no military order of knighthood, either regular or secular, came into existence before the first Crusade, as the Bollandist
Papebrock said in 1738: “Fallunt aut volentes falluntur adulatores studio placendi abrepti, quicumque militarium religionum principia ante
XII saeculum requirunt” (AA. SS. Boll., Apr., III, 155).

The Holy Land was the scene of the rise of three types of religious orders. Some were orders of charity, or hospital orders, dedicating
themselves to the care of the poor and sick pilgrims who came to visit the holy places. The oldest and most famous was the Order of
Saint Lazarus which was functioning even before the Crusades began. Its scope was the care of lepers; moreover, lepers could
become members of the congregation, and it has been alleged that during a period of its existence the grand master was chosen from
among these sorely afflicted members. The confraternity always remained primarily an order of charity. The fact that the brothers admitted
some knights stricken with leprosy who gave aid to the crusaders, particularly during the siege of Acre, when the common cause
demanded everybody’s efforts, is certainly not sufficient reason to call the congregation of Saint Lazarus a military order of knighthood.
Nonetheless, many centuries after their expulsion from the Holy Land, the remnants of this congregation were absorbed into a military
order, as we shall see hereafter.

A second group of religious orders founded in the Holy Land had an exclusively military objective, inasmuch as their purpose was to
protect the pilgrims against the attacks of the Moslems and to defend the cause of the Cross. The prototype of such knightly societies was
the Order of the Temple.

The third type of religious order in Palestine was of a mixed character, combining works of charity with military service. The most illustrious
examples of this group were the Order of Saint John in Jerusalem and the Teutonic Order.

Due to their predominant military character, only the last two groups are orders of knighthood in the strict sense of the word. Their
members combined the seemingly contrasting qualities of soldiers and monks, of “militia” and “religio.” Being a “religio” such orders
needed ecclesiastical approbation, but as a “religio militaris” they needed special authorization from the Holy See which alone could give
religious persons permission “hostem ferire sine culpa,” “blamelessly to strike the enemy.”[2]

The orders founded in the Holy Land during the Crusades were the original military orders. The pattern of the military orders founded in
the Holy Land during the Crusades was subsequently copied in various countries of Europe. We may distinguish several groups
which show an ever increasing secular element and a decrease of ecclesiastical ties. Of each group only a few examples can be cited,
omitting those of lesser significance.

The most faithful imitators of the original orders are the military orders set up in the Iberian Peninsula. Although founded by the kings of
Spain and Portugal and used by them for their own purposes, these orders were directly dependent on the Holy See at first. Only later,
when the sovereigns took over the grandmastership and made it hereditary in their family, did they lose their independence, without,
however, abandoning their religious character.

The principal military orders in Italy came into existence at a rather late date in history, on or after 1500, a date traditionally accepted as
marking the end of the age of chivalry. With the grand mastership vested in the crown, these Italian orders harbored the same cause for
deterioration as eventually appeared in the Spanish orders, because they were dynastic orders from the start. Nonetheless, the Italian
military orders greatly resembled the original ones, both in objective and organization. They aspired to the protection of the Italian coastline
against the Moslem pirates from the Barbary States in North Africa who at the time were infesting the Mediterranean; they harassed the
merchant marine and sporadically attacked harbors and towns along the coast. The objective of these orders, then, was much the same as
that of the Order of Malta at that time, namely sea-warfare against Islam. Such an organization was the Order of Saint Stephen,
established in 1562 by Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, with the approval of the Holy Father. The knights of this order which had
headquarters at Pisa cleared the Mediterranean of corsairs and took an active part in the battle of Lepanto. Eventually, however, it
disintegrated, became completely secularized and survived as an order of merit.

The Order of Saint Maurice and Lazarus, founded in 1572 by Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoia, has an intriguing history.
Comparatively late in origin, it was a merger of two pre-existing institutions which date back to much earlier times.

One was the hospital congregation of Saint Lazarus, previously mentioned. After the fall of Acre the fraternity was transferred to Europe
and for some time flourished in France. The Italian branch soon declined and was finally suppressed by Pope Innocent VIII in
1490. There remained, however, the possessions of the order and these were handed over to certain gentlemen who, far from
having an interest in lepers, did little else but appropriate the revenues for their own use.

The second institution was the so-called Order of Saint Maurice which, if it was an order at all, hardly merited the name of a military order
by any stretch of the imagination. Yet whatever it lacked of the military spirit has since been largely supplied by romance, insofar as it was
involved in the story of a layman who became antipope. When Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoia, renounced the throne, he retired to
Ripaglia where he had built a church in honor of the holy martyr Maurice to whom the house of Savoia had a special devotion. There, in
1434, the duke with five other knights established the Sacred Militia of Saint Maurice—a rather pompous title for a group of elderly
widowers who had retired into a hermitage.

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Four years later, the remnants of the Council of Basle revolted against the legitimate Pope Eugene IV and elected the above-mentioned
Amadeus. He accepted under the title of Felix V and abandoned his solitude in Ripaglia in the company of the other knightly widowers.
Thenceforth history has little to tell about the Sacred Militia of Saint Maurice. In 1572, Emmanuel Philibert, after lengthy negotiations,
obtained from Pope Gregory XIII permission to allot the possessions of the Order of Saint Lazarus in his territory to the languishing Order
of Saint Maurice. Out of this merger developed the military religious Order of Saint Maurice and Lazarus—the last of the military orders to
come into existence. Its objective was to curtail piracy on the high seas and combat the enemies of the faith. However, the institution from
its very inception was an affair of the Savoian dynasty, the duke and his successors assuming the office of grand master. The knights
vowed obedience to the duke and were subject to him not only as vassals but also by virtue of a religious vow. They pledged themselves
to serve in the convents of the order for five years; one of these convents was in Turin for the ground forces and the other in Nice for the
naval forces. The character of the Order of St. Maurice and Lazarus was completely changed when Victor Emmanuel II, in 1860,
made it a simple order of merit.

Other dynastic orders of knighthood having some ties with the Church were quite different. The motives for establishing them were various.
Some owed their origin simply to a chance occasion or a romantic event not infrequently of a frivolous nature; some were commemorative
of a signal victory in battle or the accession of a prince to the throne. Often enough, politics played a role, when a sovereign would wish to
bind his nobles closer to the crown.

By way of example, we shall mention here some of the more illustrious dynastic orders of knighthood.

The Supreme Order of the Annunciation was set up in 1364 by Amadeus VI, Count of Savoia, during a tournament which was held to
celebrate the victory of Savoia over a rival, the Marquis of Salusso. It would seem that similar brotherhoods in arms had existed at the
Savoyard court under such romantic titles as the Round Table of the Black Swan, of the Green Knights, and the like, but the new order
was to achieve a permanent character. At first, the objective of the newly organized group was only fun and love, as evidenced by the love
symbols that decorated the collar of the knights. For that reason the brotherhood was dubbed the Order of the Collar. A year later when
Count Amadeus made a trip to Constantinople and came in touch with the then extant religious military orders, he dedicated the fraternity
to the Blessed Virgin. The religious element was heightened in the symbolic figure of fifteen knights, representing the fifteen mysteries of
Our Lady. When the knights themselves had no time to say many prayers, they were quite satisfied to find a convenient substitute for their
religious obligations in the persons of fifteen Carthusian monks at the Chapter House of Pierre Chatal. The latter became the seat of the
order. Their first and last duty was to honor and serve faithfully their sovereign, the count, and provide him with material benefits. Such
privileges as exemptions from taxes, a seat in the senate, and financial support from the crown in case of necessity were given in return to
the knights. In 1518 Duke Charles III attached to the knight’s collar a medal representing the Annunciation of Our Lady, and from that
time the fraternity became known as the Order of the Collar and the Annunciation. Moreover, the duke augmented the enrollment
with five more knights, in honor of the five wounds of Christ.

In 1869, Victor Emmanuel II, who was soon to become King of a united Italy, changed the character of the order; it was to be simply a
means of rewarding a restricted number of persons for outstanding services to the dynasty or the state.

The Order of the Golden Fleece was founded by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1429, on the occasion of his marriage with the
Infanta Isabella of Portugal at Bruges in the Netherlands. Pope Eugene IV gave approval in 1433 as did also Leo X in 1516. Of course,
the origin and the name enjoy the aura of the usual legends, one of which is that the duke wished to commemorate the golden hair of Mary
of Rumbrugge with whom he was supposed to be in love. If such is true, the order was certainly a peculiar wedding gift for his legitimate
wife. The knights, who numbered thirty-one, were staunchly organized, and the order soon achieved great fame and was reputed to
embody the very spirit of chivalry. The Dukes of Burgundy and their successors acted as grand masters. Eventually, it became an order of
merit divided into two branches, one under the jurisdiction of the Austrian Hapsburgs and the other under the jurisdiction of the Spanish
Bourbons. With the overthrow of both of these houses the order is in abeyance.

The French King Louis XI founded the Order of Saint Michael in 1469. After having fallen into disrepute, because it took in all kinds of
members, its decoration was dubbed “le collier à toutes bêtes—the collar to fit every animal.” The Order of the Holy Ghost replaced it in
1573 under King Henry III. The investiture of the knights was ritualized with pompous religious ceremonies.[3]

The foregoing examples emphasize the fact that these and similar knightly fraternities were not without certain religious features. The
brotherhood was placed under the protection of a patron saint; it might receive papal approbation; the meeting place of the knights
included a chapel; and the gatherings of the knights as well as the initiation of a new member were graced with religious rites. The
rule of these societies imposed upon their members a virtuous life, as was fitting for a true knight, such as the devotion to the Holy
Spirit or the Blessed Virgin. Sometimes the statutes exhorted the members to attend daily Mass, and prescribed the reception of the
sacraments twice or three times a year as well as the daily recitation of a part of the divine office. However, the dynastic orders of
knighthood were different in character from the original military orders, with little of “religio” and still less of “militia.” Despite some religious
features, the members did not take the canonical vows, except the oath of fidelity to the crown, neither did they live in common. Their
military exploits, too, were quite insignificant in comparison with those of the Templars or the Hospitallers. When these knights fought at all,
they did so not in a body, but rather as individuals. The very exclusiveness of the Golden Fleece (thirty-one knights) or the Annunziata
Order (fifteen and later twenty knights) excluded all large scale feats. Besides, the objective of their military activities was not the defense
of the faith, but the conquest of any enemy with whom their sovereign might become embroiled.

Further development of almost all orders of knighthood is one of monotonous regularity. Those which did not become extinct were
completely secularized, some during the course of the Reformation and others during the French Revolution. The latter abolished all orders
of knighthood in France, but in 1802 Napoleon re-established an order of knighthood—that of the Legion of Honor. It was merely an
order of merit, and served as a model not only for the newer but also reverted upon the older still existing orders.

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A few orders of knighthood did not become reduced to mere orders of merit and did retain a link with the Church. These include the
Order of Malta, that of the Teutonic Knights, the Holy Sepulchre, and the Iberian military orders, which will be the subject of the
subsequent articles.

THE ECCLESIASTICAL ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD

Part II

THE SOVEREIGN MILITARY ORDER OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM

This order, also called the Order of Rhodes and more widely known as the Order of Malta, from the locations of its headquarters after it
was forced to leave the Holy Land, is the oldest order of knighthood in existence, antedating even that of the Order of the Garter by more
than two hundred years. It is also the most illustrious and meritorious of the religious military orders. Its origin goes back to the hospital for
Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem, established in the first half of the 11th century by a group of merchantmen from Amalfi, Italy. When the
crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 the hospital was headed by a layman named Gerard whose birthplace is variously given as
Martiques in Provence, Amalfi in southern Italy and Tonco in Piedmont, all in line with the respective nationality of the historians who wrote
his life.[4] This saintly man organized the hospital staff into a community of lay brothers for whom he drew up appropriate constitutions
which were approved in 1113 by Pope Paschal II. The fraternity became known as the Hospitallers of St. John, after the patron saint of
the church which was attached to the hospital. This patron was St. John the Almoner, Patriarch of Alexandria, who had provided the
means for rebuilding the churches of the Resurrection and of Calvary in Jerusalem. Later the Hospitallers adopted the better known St.
John the Baptist as their patron saint.

Whereas Gerard was the founder of the Order of St. John, his successor Raymond du Puy, a knight from Provence, became its organizer.
While he was Master of the Hospital (1120-60), the community, although continuing its hospital work, began also to engage in services of
a military character. The military duties consisted at first in providing armed protection for the sick and the poor and military escorts
for the pilgrims. Soon the brotherhood took part in the defense of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and in the battles against the
Moslems and thus became a full-fledged military order. But the order never forsook its humble beginnings; its militarization only added a
new objective to its activities, as expressed in the age-old motto: Obsequium pauperum et tuitio fidei—service of the poor and
protection of the faith.

During the process of militarization three classes of brothers developed: the knights who led in the fighting and held most of the higher
administrative functions at headquarters and in the other houses of the order; the chaplains who took care of the spiritual needs of the other
members of the order and of the patients in the hospitals; the sergeants-at-arms, who were the serving brothers. In the beginning, persons
not belonging to the military aristocracy or nobility could enter the class of knights, but as from Master Hugh Revel (1258-77) the rule was
laid down that such as desired to be admitted as knights should prove nobility on both father’s and mother’s side. When occasionally a few
knights were received into the order who were not fully qualified with regard to their armorial bearings, they were called Knights-of-Grace
(admitted by favor) in contrast to the duly qualified members who were called Knights-of-Justice, a distinction which has prevailed until
recently.

The number of professed knights was always quite limited, scarcely in excess of 500 or 600 knights. Since the order was essentially a lay
organization, the number of professed priests always remained very small. The professed chaplains served mainly in the Convent, that is,
the general headquarters of the order, and were therefore called Conventual Chaplains. The cura animarum in the houses outside the
Convent was for the most part exercised by priests who did not belong to the order, but were engaged by the order according to its
needs; since they were throughout the time of office under the jurisdiction of the grand master they were called Chaplains of Magistral
Obedience.

The professed sergeants-at-arms assisted the knights; they were at first quite important and numerous but eventually almost completely
faded out of the picture, being replaced by hired help. In fact, the knights employed a considerable number of men for all their
enterprises, both charitable and military: physicians and other personnel in the hospital were engaged on a paid basis, the soldiers
who formed the body of the order’s army were mercenary troops as were the sailors on their fleet in the days of Rhodes and Malta.

At the top of this hierarchical pyramid stood the Master. His official title, ever since the days of Blessed Gerard, was Master of the
Hospital. Although often referred to, even in earlier days, as the Grand Master, he did not formally assume the latter title until 1489. After
the order had settled on Malta, the Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt (1601-1622) was given the title of prince of the Holy Roman
Empire by the Emperor and the Pope bestowed on him and his successors a rank equal to a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church with the
title of Eminence. Besides these sonorous titles, the grand master, like all other professed members of the order, also uses the religious title
Frà (Brother) which is put before his baptismal name. To date there have been seventy-six grand masters.

The monastic habit of the order was a wide black cassock with a slit on each side for the arms. In the days of Blessed Gerard a plain white
cross was sewn on the breast; Master Raymond introduced the eight-pointed white cross which has become the emblem of the order
down to the present day. Since these bell-like cloaks were rather cumbersome in battle, Pope Innocent IV in 1248 granted the knights
permission to wear a black surcoat over armour when on active service. Pope Alexander IV in 1259 changed the color of this tunic to red,
with a plain white cross. The choir dress of the professed knights is even at present a black mantle with the Maltese cross and a very
elaborate maniple.

The headquarters of the order, wherever they might be, in Jerusalem, Acre, Rhodes or Malta, were called the Convent. In its developed

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form this Convent consisted of the palace of the grand master, the living quarters of the knights and their assistants, the stables for the
horses, the church and the hospital.

Even by modern standards the hospital in Jerusalem was quite large; Master Roger des Moulins in a letter of 1178 puts the number of
patients at 950. According to the statutes of 1182, the medical staff consisted of four physicians and a number of male nurses. Special
regulations were laid down concerning hygiene. A wise rule was that each patient, after admittance, should hand over his valuables
to the hospital authorities so as to prevent protests and reclamations in case of loss or theft. A religious in charge registered all the
belongings of a patient and gave them back after he was dismissed. The statutes of the hospital in Jerusalem served as a model for, and
sometimes were literally copied by, other hospital organizations in the Middle Ages.[5]

In view of the fact that before the crusades hospitals in the more modern sense of the word hardly existed, the charity work of the Knights
of St. John—and to a lesser extent that of the other orders founded in the Holy Land—has been hailed as a kind of innovation. Historians
agree that the Hospitallers must be credited with having created the hospital in the organized sense.

Whenever the knights of St. John had to transfer their Convent, they considered it one of their first duties to attach to it a well-equipped
hospital for “our lords the sick.” The hospital in Rhodes, restored by the Italian government under Mussolini to its original condition, was a
large and beautiful building. On Malta the hospital or “Sacra Infirmeria” developed into a center for medical sciences, particularly surgery
and ophthalmology.

The militarization of the order had a double effect. Knights from every country in Europe enrolled under the red banner with the white
cross. At the same time the military reputation of the order greatly increased the number of donations and legacies which had been given
already at the time the order was devoted to charity work. These possessions scattered throughout the Near East and Europe called for
administration and management. Although the supervisory system was very complicated and only gradually developed, it may be said in
general that the order was divided in bailiwicks and priories which were roughly equivalent to provinces in other orders and each priory
comprised a number of commanderies. The house of a commander might be a manor, a castle, a walled-in-portion or a fortified church
with an annex. Each house contained, besides the chapel and the living quarters for the household, a number of rooms, to be used
as a ward for travellers and as a hospital for sick pilgrims.[6]

The functions of the priors and commanders were manifold: they collected the revenues of the estates of the order, they gave protection to
the pilgrims, occasionally they built or maintained roads and bridges and their “mansiones” were recruiting stations for the order. When the
days of the great pilgrimages were over, several hospices of St. John grew into regular hospitals.

The territorial organization of the order achieved its final completion, when it was divided into langues or tongues. When the headquarters
of the order were in Rhodes and Malta, the knights of each langue lived together in their own residence, called auberge or inn, so that the
Convent consisted of a number of national “monasteries.”

Although the training of the Knights of St. John was mainly aimed at making them good fighters—a life not particularly conducive to
sanctity—yet the chronicles of the order boast a number of men and women noted for their holiness. To mention a few: Gerard, the
Founder, and Raymond du Puy, who have been always revered as Blessed; St. Hugh, Commander of Geneva; the sergeant-at-arms
Blessed Gerard Mercati who, however, died as a Franciscan; and the most renowned among the women saints, St. Ubaldescha, St.
Toscana and St. Fiora of Beaulieu.[7]

The military and political history of the Order of St. John is an eight-hundred-years-long Odyssey which can be best characterized as the
road from Jerusalem to Rome by way of Acre, Rhodes, Malta, and a number of other places, including a curious detour by Russia. The
Hospitallers stayed in the Holy Land for almost two centuries, until 1291; they then had their headquarters on the island of Rhodes for
another two hundred years (1309-1522), and afterwards transferred to the island of Malta for two centuries and a half (1530-1798),
finally moving to Rome in 1834.[8]

In the Palestinian period the Hospitallers fought for the defense of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem; together with the Templars they
supplied the best-trained and disciplined troops and, especially in the times of disaster, their forces were the most stable and
reliable. During the last forty years of the kingdom the defense of the country rested almost completely upon these two military orders.[9]

In the armies of the Christians in the Holy Land the knights formed a sort of division, composed of between 300 and 500 knights and a
number of hired soldiers. This division was sometimes used as a flank, but more often as a vanguard or rear guard. Besides, the knights
built and garrisoned an impressive number of fortresses of which the most powerful were Margat and Crac.

Only seven knights of St. John, including the master, survived the fall of Acre in 1291. They found asylum on the island of Cyprus. During
their years there, the knights began to build up a naval force. With this they conquered the island of Rhodes, where they were firmly
established in 1308. Thus they became known as Knights of Rhodes.[10]

At Rhodes the knights reached the peak of power and influence, never quite attained in the same measure before or after. And this is all
the more remarkable because the number of knights on the island never exceeded three hundred. By building enormous fortifications they
made the island an almost impregnable bastion against the attacks of the Mamelukes of Egypt and Syria and the Turks of Constantinople.
With their naval power they started a new type of warfare against the old enemies. In Rhodes the knights became a sovereign power like
the sea republics of Italy or the Hanseatic cities in Germany.[11] Their navy flew its own flag, a white cross on a red field, they
minted their own money, they concluded treaties with other sovereign states on the basis of equality and they had their diplomatic
representatives at many courts. After repulsing numerous attacks, the knights finally were overwhelmed by a strong expeditionary force

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under Sultan Soliman I and capitulated Dec. 21, 1522.

Once again the remaining knights drifted around in search of a dwelling place; they established their capital successively in Crete, Messina,
Baia, Viterbo, and Nizza. Finally, on March 24, 1530, they obtained from Emperor Charles V, in his capacity as king of Sicily, the island
of Malta and adjacent islands as a “perpetual and free feud.” The only obligation attached to this transfer was that the knights should
annually, on the feast of All Saints, offer a falcon or a hawk to the King of Sicily, whoever he might be. Thus the Order of Saint John
became a feudatory of the kingdom of Sicily territorially, but as a religious order it continued dependent on the authority of the Holy See.
From their key position in the Mediterranean, the knights watched the movements of the Turkish fleet and engaged in battle the corsairs
from Tripoli and the other Barbary States. Twice a year the order equipped a “caravan,” namely a naval expedition, to ferret out pirates
along the coastline of the Mediterranean. As in Rhodes, in Malta the knights sustained several attacks from the Turks, the most memorable
of which was the “Great Siege” (1565). The knights were victorious on all occasions. However, in the eighteenth century a decline in spirit
and in discipline set in. What the Turks failed to achieve, Napoleon did; on his way to Egypt, without striking a blow he captured the
fortress of Malta, believed to be impregnable (June 12, 1798). The weak Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch soon resigned and the
order established a provisional headquarters at Trieste which at the time was under Austria.

A peculiar situation then arose: an orthodox emperor made himself Grand Master of this thoroughly Catholic Order of St. John. Paul I of
Russia, who for some time had in mind using the Hospitallers and their island bastion for political purposes, had managed to establish a
grand priory in Russia. The Russian knights in 1798 elected Paul as Grand Master, but he died in 1801 without being able to do anything
on behalf of the order. With England taking Malta from the French in 1800, the old capital was lost for good.

Upon the loss of Malta the order reached the lowest point in all its glorious history. The order’s headquarters shifted from Messina
to Catania to Ferrara and finally in 1834 they were established in Rome. The knights had one more grand master after Paul I, but
when he died in 1805, the Pope allowed them only to elect lieutenant grand masters who were to be ratified by him. This state of affairs
continued for seventy-four years until Leo XIII by a Bull of March 29, 1879, re-established the office of grand master with headquarters in
Rome.[12]

From then on the order regained part of its old vitality. It had lost its territorial sovereignty, military activities had ceased, but it now
reverted to its original objective: obsequium pauperum. The order became again a welfare and charity organization. Looking back over
its long history one might say that at first its master was the superintendent of a hospital, then he became a commanding army general (to
which office he subsequently added that of an admiral), and in this age the grand master has become the president of an international
Catholic White Cross which at times collaborates with the international Red Cross.

The order has built and maintains an impressive number of hospitals—in Italy alone there are 19 with a total of 5,290 beds; it takes care of
a number of children’s homes, child centers and trade schools for abandoned children. During the two world wars, the order established
military hospitals and had a number of ambulance trains and airplanes for the transport of wounded soldiers; in catastrophes such as
earthquakes or other disasters it provides food and medic...